. >> the problem is there's no ronald reagan, there's no bill clinton, there's nobody to talk. you know, the average person thinks that we suddenly had a revenue shortfall and that's why we're running a deficit. they have no idea that we've got tons of revenue but that spending is at a ridiculous level now. 25% of gdp. it needs to get down to 17% of gdp. nobody has explained this to the public properly or convincingly. >> aunder your favorite presidet the debt has gone from roughly 10 trillion to 16 trillion. we just had the treasury numbers out yesterday. in fact, in the last year it went up again 1.3 trillion. now, this leaves an opening for the republicans. but i don't think they're smart enough to take it. and i agree with costa. actually, the president, who is a very clever political guy, they're letting him get off because he doesn't want to cut 13e7bding. mark is right. except smash the defense department. the rest of it, the entitlements, the discretionary, the little entitlements, he doesn't want to touch them. >> i don't know. was there a question in there? >> i think